(L-R) MIFFest Programmer Ong Lay Jin, actor Jack Tan, Chairman of MIFFest & MGGa Joanne Goh and Chairman of China Film Association of Malaysia Dennis Lai at the press conference of the 2nd MIFFEst & MGGA.

9 Jan – The 2nd Malaysia Golden Global Awards (MGGA) has announced the nominees that will be vying for eight different accolades at the upcoming awards ceremony.

The Top 5 nominees for each of the eight categories were revealed yesterday by the Chairman of China Film Association of Malaysia Dennis Lai, at the press conference for Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) and MGGA held yesterday at Dorsett Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia's own "Shuttle Life" makes the country proud as it has been nominated in six categories, including Best Actress for Taiwanese star Sylvia Chang and Best Actor for Jack Tan, who has already won similar accolades at various international film festivals.

Hence, no one is more suited to take on the responsibility of a "Let's Watch Movie Icon" than the award-winning Malaysian singer-actor, whom MIFFest has appointed in hopes of enhancing publicity of the festival by drawing on Tan's influence as support.

Expressing his gratitude and honour in regard of his appointment, Tan added, "I've been to various film festivals across the world and this time, having this huge responsibility [for MIFFest], I find that it's really a very important thing to educate and encourage more people to watch films."

Three new categories are introduced at this year's MIFFest: Southeast Asian Focus, World Cinema and Female Filmmaker in Focus. There are a total of 24 titles that will be screened at the film festival, most of which are also MGGA nominees.

China's "Love Education" has been picked as the opening film, which will be screened at the opening ceremony to be held at TGV Cinemas Sunway Velocity on 25 February 2018. Meanwhile, Iran's "Yellow" has been set as the closing film of MIFFest.

"Shuttle Life" star Jack Tan is MIFFest's first ever "Let's Watch Movie Icon".

As was revealed in November last year, Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza will be heading the MGGA jury panel, which includes Tran Anh Hung (director, "Eternity"), Patrick Tam (director, "After This Our Exile"), Lee Lieh (actor, producer, "Jump Ashin!"), Suhasini Maniratnam (actor, writer, director, "Bandhana"), Malaysia's own Dain Iskandar Said (director, "Interchange") and the newly-added Naomi Kawase ("Sweet Bean").

Aside from the eight categories in competition, there will also be Special Awards whose recipients will be announced at a later date.

The 2nd Malaysia International Film Festival will be held from 26 February until 2 March 2018 at TGV Cinemas KLCC.

The 2nd Malaysia Golden Global Awards will take place at Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on 3 March 2018.

Below are the nominees for MGGA 2018:

Best New Director
Huang Hsin-Yao, "The Great Buddha+"
Kantemir Balagov, "Tesnota"
Kirsten Tan, "Pop Aye"
Roya Sadat, "A Letter to the President"
Tan Seng Kiat, "Shuttle Life"

Best Screenplay
Aziz Dildar, "A Letter to the President"
Huang Hsin-Yao, "The Great Buddha+"
Kirsten Tan, "Pop Aye"
Saeed Roustayi, "Blockage"
Vivian Qu, "Angels Wear White"

Best Cinematography
Anggi Frisca, "The Seen and Unseen"
Benoit Dervaux, "Angels Wear White"
Chen Ko Chin, "Shuttle Life"
Mong Hong Chung (Nagao Nakashima), "The Great Buddha+"
Yao Hung-I, "Missing Johnny"

Best Supporting Actress
Angel Chan, "Shuttle Life"
Ayu Laksmi, "The Seen and Unseen"
Darya Zhovnar, "Tesnota"
Gity Ghasemi, "Blockage"
Zhou Meijun, "Angels Wear White"

Best Supporting Actor
Artem Cipin, "Tesnota"
Huang Yuan, "Missing Johnny"
Jack Yap, "Shuttle Life"
Leon Dai, "The Great Buddha+"
Nader Fallah, "Blockage"

Best Actress
Daphne Low, "AQERAT"
Geunyoong Moon, "Glass Garden"
Leena Alam, "A Letter to the President"
Sylvia Chang, "Shuttle Life"
Vicky Chen, "Angels Wear White"

Best Actor
Bamboo Chen, "The Great Buddha+"
Hamed Behdad, "Blockage"
In-Sung Jo, "The King"
Jack Tan, "Shuttle Life"
Thaneth Warakulnukroh, "Pop Aye"

Best Director
Jae-Rim Han, "The King"
Kamila Andini, "The Seen and Unseen"
Mohsen Gharaei, "Blockage"
Su-Won Shin, "Glass Garden"
Vivian Qu, "Angels Wear White"

Best Film
"Blockage" (Iran)
"A Letter to the President", (Afghanistan)
"Pop Aye", (Singapore, Thailand)
"The Great Buddha+" (Taiwan)
"Angels Wear White", (China, France)